Tuesday, May 13, 2014

How craft beer venues should use social media

I consider myself a cheerleader for the Capital District craft beer scene, so much so that I started a Facebook “like page” and a Twitter account
called Albany Craft Beer as a way to help promote all the craft
beer-centric venues and events happening in this area. Much like this
blog, it’s not done for money, I just do it because I enjoy it.

However, I’ve noticed a lot of craft beer venues do not understand
how to use social media to their advantage. Heck, many places do not use
it all, which is baffling because a good portion of their customers
incorporate social media into their lifestyle. When done properly, there
is nothing to be lost and much to be gained by having a strong social
media presence.

There are books, even college courses,
dedicated to the how’s and why’s of a successful social media campaign,
so this blog will be more of an overview than a step-by-step/how-to
guide. Most of these tips are applicable to any small, local business;
they’re not restricted to craft beer establishments.

Show us your taps!

First thing’s first: If you’re a craft beer establishment you’d
better be changing out your taps regularly. When one keg kicks, you
don’t just put on another keg of the exact same beer, do you? Therefore,
it would behoove all craft beer establishments to let their customers
know what’s on tap on a frequent basis (e.g. weekly or semi-weekly).
Websites are fine for this, but a social media status update is even
better. Though there’s more to it than simply posting a message or
sending a tweet. My friends at The Bier Abbey in Schenectady are the
absolute best at showing off their tap list on their Facebook page:
This is what I would consider a perfect presentation for a tap list, for three reasons:

It colorful, eye-catching, and easy to read.

All 30 taps are listed on the same board.

The prices and pour sizes are clearly indicated.

I wish every craft beer bar had a tap menu like this (in both appearance and
selection). Some have a similar-looking list, but not all in one place,
and/or they don’t post their entire menu on social media at once.
Notifying us of a single tap change is nice, but it’s unreasonable for
anyone other than employees to know all the beers that are on tap at any
given moment. Also, posting a link to your venue’s listing on
beermenus.com is also nice, but an all-in-one, easy-to-read graphic like
the one above is better.

Facebook and Twitter should supplement – not replace – a website

Every bar, restaurant, tavern and brewpub should have a website. Every
one. I do notice some places only have a Facebook and/or Twitter
account, but no website. Using these outlets instead of a website makes
me think the establishment is stingy. If they cut corners on literally
projecting their image to the world, what else do they cut corners on?

The problem with social media feeds is that there’s no organization
to them – everything just appears in reverse chronological order. A
professionally-designed website offers a variety of choices in an
easy-to-see, easy-to-browse format. I should be able to go to
yourvenue.com and see links to the food menu, beer menu, events, hours,
location, about us, etc. Trying to find these things on a Facebook page
can be something of a wild goose chase.

So few people actually see Facebook and Twitter posts

As an addendum to the previous point, it should be noted that
businesses should not expect that every post and tweet will be seen by
every follower. Most analytic reports show that the average share on
social media is seen by only 5-10% of the followers at most!
For example, if your business has 1,000 likes on Facebook and you post
something about today’s special, only 100-130 people will likely see it
(though, how many actually take the time to stop and look at it is
another story). With Twitter, the reach is even smaller.

On social media, everything is “in the moment.” It is not a remotely
“permanent record” like a website. On Facebook, a post from 12 hours ago
is “old,” a post from 24 hours ago is “really old,” and anything beyond
that is just archaic. Therefore, it is rather ridiculous for the
average bar, restaurant, brewpub, etc. to post a list of events and
specials for the entire week on a Monday under the assumption that their
customers will: 1) see it when it’s posted and remember all the
different details for the different days; or 2) they will come back to
it later; or 3) they will that they will see it all (Facebook tends to
show you only posts from pages it thinks you would want to see).

Facebook events can be helpful

There’s nothing wrong with posting events on a business website, but
since events are timely they’re better promoted through social media.
One of the best features of Facebook for a business is the ability to
create events and invite guests. While it’s true that actual Facebook posts don’t get as much traffic as you’d think, events
can be targeted to specific people by inviting them. Plus, attendees
can invite their friends, which help get the word out even more. A
Facebook event is also helpful through the smartphone app whereby a user
can simply tap on the event and add it to their calendar.

The downside, though, is if you invite too many people too often you
run the risk of being blocked by those who feel you’re spamming them.
Additionally, it looks bad when an event indicates that 1,387 people
have been invited, but only 20-30 have actually RSVPed.

Businesses should use “like pages,” not profiles or groups!

This is one my biggest pet peeves of social media. Whenever I see a
local business using a profile page instead of a “like page,” I
immediately facepalm. There are so many reasons this is bad form,
because:

It indicates ignorance of how Facebook works and makes the business seem out of touch.

Facebook profiles are limited to 5,000 friends, but “like pages” can have an infinite number of fans.

The customer has to wait for the business to actually accept their
friend request and may not be able to see the business’s posts in the
meantime.

According to Facebook’s user agreement, personal profiles are not allowed for business use anyway.

Lastly, if you’re using a group for your business’s Facebook
presence, it looks like you prefer 2400 baud dial-up modems and
electronic bulletin boards to modern technology.

63.3 - 3.5B-ABOVE AVERAGEThe lowest I can rate a beer and still honestly give it a thumbs up. The attributes are enough to overshadow the flaws. Nothing I'd jump for joy about, but a drinkable, satisfactory beer to be sure.

53.0 - 3.2C+AVERAGE/NEUTRALNot quite a good beer, not quite a bad beer. I don't have a strong opinion either way about it. There may be something to like here, but there's also something holding it back.

42.8 - 2.9CBELOW AVERAGEThe best of the worst. A beer with noticeable flaws and perhaps some minor attributes. Tolerable for a serving, but no reason to seek it out. A genuine thumbs down, but not something I despise.

32.6 - 2.7C-TOLERABLEWhile not the worst beer, there's probably nothing about it that I like. Plenty of off-putting features. I can tolerate a single serving, but would recommend avoiding it.